Jlin reveals how she found her signature sound in Native Instruments video

Native Instruments has released a video interview with footwork artist Jlin in which she discusses how she found her signature sound.

When Jlin started off making dance music in her home of Gary, Indiana, she would cut pieces from other artists’ tracks in the style of fellow footwork producers like RP Boo, but the video explains how a comment from her mother inspired her to produce without samples.

“I had sampled Teena Marie’s ‘Portuguese Love’, and I asked her to listen to it,” Jlin says in the video. “She said to me, ‘It sounds good, but what do you sound like?’ And that question changed everything.”

Jlin’s recent Dark Lotus EP for Planet Mu features one such track, ‘Nyakinyua Rise’, which came out of a sketch made with soft synths and drums. The video also covers Jlin’s collaboration with Indian choreographer Avril Stormy Unger.

Jlin’s second album, Black Origami, is due to be released later this year on Planet Mu. She also contributed a remix to a recent EP from Spectrum Spools duo Second Woman.